Shock & Awe; Fear & Thrill; Existential crisis & Unbridled optimism - all together and all at once were the emotions that have been rushing through me for the past few years. Early on, it dawned on me that anyone in software who would refuse to get on with the program would be relegated to the past. There are three categories of developers: those who are passionate about building something (as an act of creation), those who want to write code for the sake of code, i.e., artisans, and those who just drifted in without passion and never developed one after joining in.
While code itself was never a bottleneck for building products, it was still a required ingredient. One still needed people who were good at it - that is no longer true. At worst, it made learning 10x easier, and at best, it made knowing how to code redundant.
As a systems developer who sometimes likes to build small frontend applications, I no longer need to be an expert at CSS or JS. But if I had to, I could pick it up in a pinch and become reasonably good at it. I was able to pick up Rust extremely quickly and write high-performance software in a short amount of time (granted, I knew some C++) - as compared to several months-long false starts I had years ago - all because it was so much easier, and arguably more fun to learn.
If you are not someone who enjoys building, it’s not looking good. Artisans may have a place - niche but diminished; craft for the sake of craft doesn’t help you ship. If you are not passionate about either building or the craft, it’s not looking good. Even those who are good at both are struggling to keep up. What used to take several weeks takes several days - that change was unimaginable just a year ago - and has not sunk into many yet.
If you were just a code monkey, it’s over.
Being able to organize your thoughts clearly and concisely is a prerequisite. Being a good communicator will come to matter more than ever. Taste and product-centric thinking will be an asset. These used to separate good from great; now they separate the employed from the unemployed. The bar moved up.
It was the act of creating something out of nothing that brought me joy and led me deep into programming. I can build so much more of that now; it’s intoxicating; At the same time, am cautiously watchful.
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